Banana cookies and car trouble

It feels like forever since I posted anything. Life has been kind of crazy here the last 2 weeks. First off, our beloved Explorer died! For those of you who don't know, Ben loves that car pretty much more than anything except me and the girls. It was an awesome car. It took us through dating, engagement, our wedding, 7 moves, 6 states and 2 kids not to mention all the fun outings and just day to day stuff. We will miss that awesome car. (Although I love having A/C again). Anyway, we got a rental to use until we found a new car, which we love! We have moved up to an Expedition. I don't have a picture of the outside, I'm not sure why, but it's a goldish tan. Very nice. There was a day though where I didn't have a car. I mention it only because it lead to a funny story. While we were without a car, Julia and Adria wanted to make cookies. We bake a lot, they love it. We started out just fine, but soon realized we were out of eggs. I wasn't about to walk the 4 mile round trip to the store just for eggs since I knew we'd have a car the next day. So I quickly Googled "egg substitute" and a few of the websites suggested that, for cookies, bananas were a good substitue. They are not. The cookie dough was edible, but once I cooked it, no one would eat the cookies. So, I left the bowl of cookie dough sitting on the counter to wash out after the girls went to bed (I don't do dishes during the day). Now that its been two weeks, I can't remember why I left the kitchen, but the girls used a chair to get down the cookie dough and they snuck it into the toy room. I came in to find this: While the banana cookies weren't good for eating, they apparently made a wonderful playdoh.

Lightning

Today it rained. It rained and rained and rained until I thought the flowers I planted were going to be washed down the street. It was beautiful to me to watch the giant streaks of lightning flash through the sheets of rain. Julia was very nervous about her first real thunderstorm, especially when Daddy slipped and mentioned that lightning will hit people. I tried telling her it was still ok to splash in the puddles on the driveway because the houses were tall and would keep her safe. When that didn't work I told her with a very serious face that lightning won't hit little girls. Her reply was, "Oh, it just hits mommies and daddies, not little girls. Only cars hit little girls." In her 3-year-old mind it made sense. I think it completed the logic that she should hold our hands in the street because cars won't hit mommy or daddy. Cars won't hit me, but lightning will. I still love watching it.

Nests

The idea for nests was born in Julia's mind. I don't know what the thought process was, but she decided that she needed to build a nest last week. Since Adria is always by Julia's side, they worked together. They dragged the dirty laundry baskets from both of their rooms and dumped them into a pile. That wasn't big enough or soft enough or messy enough. So they added the clean clothes. Then they needed a place to sleep in their nest and so they got their pillows, the pillows from the couch and my pillows. Finally, the perfect nest! It had only taken about 5 minutes. Then they ran to tell me. I don't think my reaction was what they envisioned. The first nest I gave them a patronizing smile and told them they would have to clean it up when they were done. But they keep building these nests. In the beginning I thought of birds living in these nest, nice happy birds. Now I'm thinking about rats, dirty rats that never stop making a mess. My children aren't rats, I just can't help but think of rats. Today was the 10th time they made one of these giant messes. I hate nests. Every time we're at home the girls want to do 3 things, baths, sprinklers or nests. I want to live at the park.

Mothers' Day

Happy Mothers' Day to all the wonderful moms in my life! Especially to my sister who gets to celebrate her very first Mothers' Day this year. It will only get better! Ben has been great today. Waffels with whipped cream for breakfast and chocolate covered strawberries that were soooo yummy. They were supposed to be a surprise but when they got back from the store yesterday Julia said, "We got you a card and candy strawberries and they are a surprise!!" She was so excited to have a surprise for me. On a mostly unrelated note, I have not been properly teaching my girls about some very important childhood issues. It was brought to my attention when we went to Wells Fargo and Adria asked, "Can I come in to the piggy bank?" But they have been shown the light. My mom found some adorable piggy banks and send them to us this week. Thanks mom!

Pictures

People have asked for pictures of my house. It's not anything specatular, but we love having a house!

Sprinkler Fun